Nomura has been consolidating jointly held management roles as it targets $1bn of cost savings. London-based Piero Novelli resigned as co-head of global mergers and acquisitions, a company memo showed last month. Koji Nagai, who became chief executive officer in August, has pledged to make Asia a focus of the Tokyo-based bank’s overseas operations.

'Nomura has been in transition since the CEO changed', said Futoshi Sasaki, an analyst at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co. in Tokyo. 'Asia has business opportunities but it will take time for them to bear fruit'.